Oakland’s Andre Ward is rated the No. 2 boxer in the world — regardless of weight class — and he wants to get paid like it.

That’s at the heart of a lawsuit the 29-year-old WBA super-middleweight champion recently filed to free himself from his contract with longtime promoter Dan Goossen.

During an interview with this newspaper last month, Ward hinted at the mindset that led to his legal action.

“I’m not going to be around another 10 years, maybe not even another six to seven years,” the 2004 Olympic champion said before his most recent bout. “This is 20 years (in boxing) — 10 years as an amateur, coming up on 10 years as a pro. I’ve got to make my mark now.”

And his money.

But his move against Goossen doesn’t come with the promise of a happy ending.

Injuries have limited Ward to two fights over the past two years, Ward is risking further interruption to his career by engaging in a legal battle with the man who helps arrange his fights. And those who closely follow boxing question whether Ward can come close to reaching the financial status of Floyd “Money” Mayweather — the sport’s biggest star — even if he wins the chance to switch promoters.

Mayweather, the unbeaten light middleweight, is coming off a September fight in which he was guaranteed $41.5 million even before receiving his share of what was a record $150 million in pay-per-view sales.

“Floyd Mayweather is the only fighter that does that today,” Dan Rafael of ESPN.com said. “Nobody else comes close.”

Ward was paid $2 million for his unanimous decision over Edwin Rodriguez in an HBO fight on Nov. 16, and he has earned an estimated $10 million over the length of his pro career. But he never has fought in the boxing mecca of Las Vegas despite a 27-0 record, and he still awaits his first pay-per-view bout.

“That’s the only way the truly big money comes,” said Kevin Iole, a boxing writer for Yahoo! Sports.

Ward’s attorney hopes to give him that opportunity by using a precedent established by former boxer Oscar De La Hoya in a 2001 case against his promoter.

Alan Rader, a Los Angeles lawyer who specializes in business litigation and entertainment industry disputes, will argue that Ward’s three separate agreements with Goossen-Tutor Promotions over a span of nine years constitutes a continuous contract that violates the California Labor Code. That code limits personal services contracts to seven years.

The question will be whether a judge agrees that De La Hoya’s case against Top Rank applies in Ward’s situation.

“The De La Hoya case would scare me if I was Dan Goossen,” Iole said.

Goossen, reached by phone, would only say, “I’m very disappointed in Andre.”

Ward did not respond to an interview request by this newspaper, and Rader said he was instructed by his client not to comment.

This is Ward’s second attempt this year to free himself from Goossen, who has been his promoter since he turned pro in 2004.

In June, Ward lost an attempt through arbitration to void his contract that extends at least through September 2015.

Now the two parties are butting heads again, threatening their ability to work together on creating Ward’s next fight.

Ward told the Los Angeles Times in an email that the legal process “should have no bearing on my getting back in the ring as soon as possible.”

Both sides are hoping for a fast resolution, partly because Ward can’t afford to risk fading from view. Injuries to his hand and shoulder allowed him to fight just once after December 2011 until his bout with Rodriguez last month.

That one fight was regarded as perhaps the best of his career — a dominating victory over light-heavyweight Chad Dawson in September 2012. But Ward couldn’t capitalize on the momentum.

Whether Ward has the star power to generate a rich pay-per-view fight remains unclear. He is a great technical fighter but doesn’t boast a big knockout punch.

Compared with the flamboyant Mayweather, Ward is perceived as vanilla — a family man who attends church, stays out of trouble and avoids attracting attention with his mouth.

“He’s not Floyd Mayweather, standing out there waving his money around,” Rafael said. “He’s the guy you’d want as your neighbor, but not necessarily the guy you want to spend $50 or $60 to watch on pay-per-view.”

Iole, who has followed Ward’s entire pro career, said both fighter and promoter get some blame for Ward’s relatively low profile.

“Part of his issue is himself,” Iole said. “I’ve covered Floyd Mayweather since his amateur days. I see how hard Mayweather works to market and promote himself. Andre Ward doesn’t do that.”

Ward always has taken the approach that results — not antics outside the ring — should define him for fans.

“I’m not going to throw chairs, I’m not going to cuss, I’m not going to do that kind of stuff because you don’t have to do that,” Ward said in a 2009 interview with this newspaper. “You don’t have to act like that, and you don’t have to live like that in order to be successful.”

Another of Ward’s “problems” is that there are few legitimate rivals left in the super-middleweight class. He has beaten five of the next nine fighters ranked below him.

“Destroyed them all,” Rafael said.

The notable exception is Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., the 27-year-old from Mexico.

“That’s a fight that needs to happen,” Ward said last month.

Iole said Chavez is “not even on the same planet” with Ward as a boxer but suggested that his popularity could create the opportunity Ward covets.

“The most honest way to judge a fighter’s worth,” Rafael said, “is to put him on pay-per-view and see how many people buy it.”

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